Dedication to her craft has paid off for 19-year-old Tahlia Nonnenmacher.

The talented hairdresser heads to Barcelona in October for an international hair show. After routinely impressing her boss, Jen Auon, owner of B-Tempted salon in Mittagong, Tahlia was chosen to accompany Jen on an overseas trip to enhance her skill set.

Ms Aoun “set the girls a challenge” to earn points through selling products as a learning exercise, with the promise of a “surprise” at the end of the six-month test.

After smashing her weekly goals, Tahlia was selected by Ms Auon to join her on a trip to Spain to attend Global Zoom 2017, a world-class artistic hairdressing event that she plans to compete in next year.

“I actually over-achieved every week, beating the goals I had set,” she said.

”I’ve never been overseas before so it’s very exciting.”

The three-day extravaganza, organised by hair colouring giant, Goldwell, includes a hair-colouring competition, a live hairdressing masterclass, an evening gala show, and cocktail nights.

“It will be interesting to see how other countries do hair – to see how they cut, style and colour and all their different ideas,” she said.

Tahlia said her love for hairdressing was cultivated as a child, spending time with her grandmother.

“My nonna was a hairdresser and I always watched her cut hair when I was a child,” she said.

“I left school in Year 11 and worked at a cafe. Then I went to Jen every week begging her for a job [at B-Tempted]. She eventually took me out for lunch and told me about the job.”

“Jen is like a mother to us all. It’s a very relaxing, warm place to work,” Tahlia said.